Chantilly

The 1st of November is a public holiday here -woohoo, my first short week and gave us(Rach & I) the oppurtunity to explore some the places in Ile-de-France (the area surrounding Paris. After much searching on the internet we decided on Chantilly. The place famous for Chatilly cream and Chantilly lace.
The Chateau at Chantilly also includes a hippodrome (racetrack) and the most gorgeous stables which hold the live horse museum. When we were walking from the train station we mistook them for the actual Chateau (crazy - these people loved their horses!).
The stables have a number of breeds of horses that you can come and visit as well as all different sorts of tack from all over the world. We also saw a dressage demontsration which was a little bit disappointing but over Xmas they have a much bigger show with costumes and the like. We weren't allowed to take photos but I was able to take this sneaky one
The actual Chateau was gorgeous, just like a fairy princess castle with a moat. It looked like you could actually live there, it was so so pretty! Inside was a museum, which I am sure would be very interesting if you were into art and the like- apparently there are paintings inside from Raphael & Botticelli. Not sure I care or would have noticed!

By far the best part of the day was wondering through the immaculate gardens and the woods. I am sure you are all totally sick of seeing pictures of trees with yellow leaves. It was so pretty though with the reflections on the canals and little water ways. I'm sure it would be lovely in summer to, they have boats on the canals and there is a maze made of hedges and a little play-village similiar to the Petit Trianon at Versailles. Guess what else we found! Wallabies in Paris, poor little things they must have been sooo cold! It was so nice to see them though, they are pretty unique and cream Australia - I was so proud :)

The weather was still decent enough to have a picnic (probably the last we'll have for a while) so we lay on the grass in a clearing in the woods and ate our baguettes near the wallabies, it was so nice :)
Rach & I had an awesome day, so very different from Paris and yet only about 45 mins away on the RER and it turns out we didn't even need a ticket to get there because there are no machines at the station in Chantilly - will be a very cheap day next time. We won't be paying for seeing the inside of teh Chateau or the horses, just a nice picnic in the park next to the roo's!